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I really like doors. You open a door and walk through a threshold and you are in a different space than the one that you just left. Just like that. Almost instantly. Sort of like magic. Over the past two years, I’ve heard more talk about walls than doors. Walls are good. They protect us […]

Today, I am sharing the second of two parts of a conversation with attorney Tarra Simmons. She is a formerly incarcerated person who has successfully reinvented herself as an advocate for people in prison and experiencing re-entry, as well as for policy change at a statewide level. Here is a link to part one of the conversation.

Today and tomorrow, I am sharing a conversation that I had with Tarra Simmons, a formerly incarcerated individual who decided to devote her life to advocating for people serving sentences and for people with criminal records. In 2014, with the encouragement of the attorneys who helped her rebuild her life after incarceration, she entered the

“I want to go home.” “Where’s my car? Someone stole my car?” “When will my parents come?” “Where am I?” “I’m not letting that man in my house.” “I wouldn’t have married that old man.” You may know the answers to all of those questions, but how do you answer them? Suzanne Weessies, the caregiver

Today is day six of the Ultimate Blogging Challenge, and the suggestion from the challenge’s organizer, Paul Taubman, was to talk about working on the weekend as a writer/blogger. Do I work on the weekend? Or do I prefer to take the weekend off? And why? Because of the nature of my blog, I often

One of the most frightening illnesses to watch in another person is dementia. The illness attacks the brain and steals a person’s memory of all things that are meaningful to that person. It renders the person confused, unable to maintain a conversation. It is painful to watch, especially if the person affected is a close

Last month, I participated in a walk from Savannah to King’s Bay, Georgia. The walk was titled the Disarm Trident Peace Walk, and we were walking to bring attention to the King’s Bay Naval Base, the home of Trident II submarines, which can carry up to twelve D5 missiles. Each of these warheads is six

On Saturday, September 29th, I went to Father Earle King’s retirement party. He had been the rector of Saint Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church since October 1987. He said, at the party, that, when he accepted the position at St. Martin’s, he believed that he would be the church’s rector six years, eight years at the most.

Today, I’m starting on a new Ultimate Blogging Challenge. This blogging challenge is held four times a year: January, April, July, and October. The goal is for bloggers to post daily for the challenge months.  Today’s post is about the month’s theme, which is change. Change of seasons and retirement are two of the changes that

Butterflies are amazing insects. My sister Diane and I had the chance to see many of them in a butterfly exhibit at the Erie County Fair. Butterflies exist everywhere in the world, except for Antarctica. Here are some interesting facts about butterflies: they are insects they have their taste receptors on their feet they go